By CHRISTOPHER GRAY

Published: January 2, 1994

CENTRAL PARK'S bridle trails offer a perfect illustration of what the park was like before the Central Park Conservancy began to make a difference a decade ago: They look like abandoned wagon paths, alternately swampy mud and rocky hardpan, bounded by collapsing fencing and scraggly undergrowth.

The Conservancy is ready to fix the trails, too, and the nonprofit organization's most recent fund-raising effort displays not only its usual determined ingenuity but also the challenges that such a restoration faces.

The 1856 plan for Central Park by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux did not provide for horseback riding, although the planners did not expressly oppose it. William Alex, president of the Frederick Law Olmsted Association, said the bridle paths were among 17 suggested changes in the Central Park plan made by Robert J. Dillon, one of the original Central Park Commissioners, a Democratic politician and two-term Corporation Counsel.

Dillon's proposals included waiting to lay out pathways until pedestrians established them by habit, and extending the Mall over the lake and up to Belvedere Castle with a large suspension bridge.

Olmsted & Vaux were able to fend off most meddling, but Dillon's suggestion for bridle paths survived. By 1863 six miles of gravel- and sand-surfaced paths extended from 59th Street and Fifth Avenue to the west side of the park and around the reservoir. The rules of the park for 1873 specifically allowed horseback riding "with a free hand and a rapid rate of speed," something not allowed anywhere else in the city.

The 1886 Appletons' Dictionary of New York City said that renting a horse cost $3 for an afternoon. The Sun's Guide to New York of 1892 noted that the stables' business fell off markedly in the summer, when their patrons "go to the seashore or to the mountains."

The soft surfaces of the bridle paths required intensive maintenance; the 1908 report notes that they were harrowed and leveled every evening and watered in the summer.

A 1929 editorial in The New York Times recalled the days when there were several hundred horses available from stables and riders frequently rode to the north end of the park, then up Seventh Avenue and along the Harlem River, and back down a bridle trail in Riverside Park.

In 1964, Hart's Guide to New York City reported that there were only 50 horses for rent, out of Claremont Stables at 175 West 89th.

By the 1970's the bridle paths were a shambles.

Last November the Conservancy prepared an application to the Federal Department of Transportation under its Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act. The Conservancy refused to release a copy of the application,but one was obtained from the Department of Parks.

It asks for Federal help of $1.6 million to help restore the trail, a cost of $301,773 per 1,000 feet.

The Conservancy got supporting letters from, among others, Paul Novograd, owner of Claremont Stables. Although the request was turned down in December, the questions that it raised remain.

TO justify it, the Conservancy proposed a fundamental change, referring to the "Multi-Modal Bridle Trail . . . a country road in the middle of the city," establishing it as an officially sanctioned path for bicyclists, runners and walkers.

But it is hard to mix those activities with horseback riding. Most park regulars have seen harrowing near-misses, usually when cyclists or dog walkers spook horses, or when Walkman-befogged pedestrians don't hear thundering hooves and cries of "coming through" until the last second.

Mr. Novograd says he was not aware that bicyclists would be permitted on the bridle trails, and absolutely opposes their presence on the trail.

On the other hand, the Conservancy is faced with a multimillion-dollar project to restore a feature that can directly benefit only a few users at a time, at least as originally designed.

Although Mr. Novograd notes that "it costs no more to rent a horse than a tennis court," riding has a hard time escaping its elitist connotation, since its appeal to urban dwellers can hardly be described as far-reaching.

But even for those who never ride, the sights and sounds of horses cantering along the leafy trails add something sweet and rich to the experience of Central Park.

As part of its restoration of Winterdale Arch, on the West Drive near 82d Street, the Conservancy has restored a few hundred feet of the bridle trail and it is now a sublime spread of beautiful black gravel, precisely raked and rolled -- as picture-perfect as any Ralph Lauren ad.

If the Conservancy can figure out how to extend that up and down the park, its artistry will approach that of Olmsted & Vaux.

Photos: Riders using Central Park's bridle paths in the early 19th century. The Central Park Conservancy is planning improvements. (Collection of Herbert Mitchell); Below, a bridle path as it looks now. (Carrie Boretz for The New York Times)